Last week, the good folks at Junecloud released a completely rewritten suite of Automator actions aimed at people who work with images and files for the web. The actions are now faster, more flexible, and they work on OS X Mavericks. I’m looking forward to playing with them.
Posts in Linked
Junecloud Automator Actions 3.0→
A Working, Miniature Replica of the Original Macintosh→
Such a cool DIY project. The developer stuffed a Raspberry Pi inside a miniaturized version of the original Macintosh case, adding HDMI, a couple USB ports, and an ethernet port along the way.
[Retro MacCast via The Verge]
Fighting Clones on the App Store→
Casey Johnston of Ars Technica investigates clones on Apple’s App Store, how they’ve affected businesses like A Beautiful Mess by copying and marketing ripoff apps, and how they’re doing it.
The app had only been out three months, and already the creators of A Beautiful Mess were scrambling to deal with a big problem: clones, copycats, and rip-offs, as many as seven of them, crowding the search results in the App Store. The clones appeared to be legitimate, affiliated versions, yet as all the developers knew, they were anything but. The CEO of the company that created the original A Beautiful Mess called them “infuriating.”
The Colors of Apple→
Linus Edwards of VintageZen takes a look at the color palette Apple has used throughout their history in a variety of products, from the original Macintosh to the translucent plastics in iMacs and iBooks to colorful iPods. Compare that history to today’s flagship products, which are aluminum and framed by black or white glass. The conversation comes in light of an impending update to the iPhone 5, which is rumored to be launching with graphite and champagne as additional colors options at the high-end. Perhaps these classy colors are intended to be throwbacks to the gray Powerbooks and beige Macs of the 90s.
Blind, A 1X Web Browser for Retina Displays→
For web developers building websites on the latest MacBook Pros, Blind lets you see what your site looks like on a 1x display. Using it is as easy as clicking on a bookmarklet. It’s $2.99 in the Mac App Store.
Soulver for iPhone Updated with iCloud Syncing, URL Scheme→
Soulver, my favorite iOS calculator app that isn’t really a calculator (I like another app for that), was updated today on the iPhone to support iCloud syncing, sub-folders, and a URL scheme. iCloud syncing was first brought to Soulver for Mac in December 2012, and now the iPhone app (Soulver for iPad hasn’t been updated yet) should be capable of syncing named documents with its Mac counterpart. If you trust iCloud with your Soulver documents, I guess that this will be a handy addition.
The URL scheme is much more interesting for my workflow. According to the release notes on iTunes, there’s now a URL scheme to launch Soulver, create a new document with text, or even to append text to an existing document. I am already thinking about the possibilities opened up by this feature for integration with apps like Launch Center Pro and Drafts – but I can’t find documentation anywhere. The app does support a soulver:// URL scheme, and hopefully more information will soon be posted on Acqualia’s website.
I’m looking forward to playing with Soulver’s URL scheme and updated preferences (not so much with iCloud sync). Soulver for iPhone is $2.99 on the App Store.
Update 9/1: The guys at Acqualia have posted a URL scheme documentation here. I have already set up a Drafts URL action that lets me quickly type a calculation in Drafts – which is my go-to text capturing tool – and append it as a new line to a specific Soulver document I have called “Calculations”. From Drafts:
soulver://new?text=[[draft]]&title=Calculations
I’m already using this action all the time to launch quick currency conversions in Soulver. Open Drafts, type “2 usd in eur”, and boom – Soulver opens, displaying the result. It’s a nice URL scheme.
The Omni Group Releases OmniKeyMaster Mac App Store License Tool→
From The Omni Group’s blog:
OmniKeyMaster is a simple app that finds App Store copies of Omni apps installed on your Mac, then generates equivalent licenses from our store - for free. This gives Mac App Store customers access to discounted pricing when upgrading from the Standard edition to Professional, or when upgrading from one major version to the next. Another benefit: since they don’t have to wait in an approval queue, our direct releases sometimes get earlier access to new features and bug fixes. OmniKeyMaster lets App Store customers access those builds, as well.
Tools like OmniKeyMaster have become quite common lately, as developers of third-party Mac apps keep struggling with the limitations imposed by Apple on the Mac App Store. Having new versions of apps every time a major upgrade is released isn’t an option for many developers, and they are resorting to workarounds like this to have the best of both worlds: the Mac App Store’s purchase system and the control on your own website and app updates. It’s a trade-off, and, in most cases, the process is quite convoluted.
In The Omni Group’s defense, their Mac App Store license tool seems easy to use and clever in how it finds all App Store copies of Omni apps on a Mac. Apple may not be interested in offering upgrade pricing on the Mac App Store, but developers find a way…or at least a viable workaround.
Twelve South Introduces the GhostStand, A Clear Elevated Stand for Your MacBook→
Twelve South has been busy this year. Their latest new product, following HiRise, is a brand new laptop stand made out of lucite. From the product page:
GhostStand is a transparent, ultra-modern platform– and a brilliant work of art– that elevates MacBook to a more comfortable viewing height. Pair your MacBook with a full-size keyboard and mouse, then set it on GhostStand to enjoy desktop style comfort at home or work. While GhostStand makes it look like your MacBook is floating in midair, two sets of soft silicone rails keep your Mac safely grounded to this affordable lucite stand.
It’s also $34.99, and can alternatively be purchased from the Apple Store online. It would pair well with a lot of Mac accessories, including those famous Harman Kardon SoundSticks. I was under the impression that the interlocking pieces of glass could be separated, making the stand portable, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. This is very much a stationary piece for your desk, designed to look beautiful and give the appearance that your Mac is floating on air.
Have a Chromecast? There’s Now an iOS App For That→
It’s little more than a configuration utility, but Chromecast for iOS (App Store link) lets you set up your newly acquired dongle so that you can connect it to your Wi-Fi network and change your device name and password.